E36 steering rack to M3

Updated 03/29/2011

Yesterday I went to junk yard to see if I could find something interesting. What I found was a E36 325iS and it still had the steering rack. Since steering was locked, I wasn't able to verify what rack it was. I assumed it was the standard E36 rack with 3.2 turns. I decided to buy it, price was 29.99, so not too bad.

Got home, cleaned it and it was the standard E36 rack with 3.2 turns. Stock M3 rack is 3.5 turns. I'm perfectly happy with stock rack, only reason I bought this was that old rack has 160k miles and it starts to be sloppy.  Most common swap is to swap with Z3 rack, which is 2.7 turns. For me, difference to it is only 0.5 turns and most importantly $470, I can do something else with it...

 

	M3 E30 OEM Rack	E36 325iS rack
Turns, lock to lock	3.5	3.2	Diff: 0.3turns
Lenght, rod end to rod end	52"	53"	Will keep E36 tie rod ends
Mounting tab thickness	62.13mm	48.36mm	Spacers needed, thickness: 13.77mm
Weight	8.8kg	6.2kg	2.6kg saving

As table shows, weight saving is significant.

 

Steering rack is now installed and it was very easy. Steering is excellent and tight.

There is millions of sites explaining the installation, so I won't bother you with all that stuff.

Kit is also available from Zionsville Autosport if you have extra money but in my opinion it is not needed at all. Total cost for me was 32 dollars...